FEMA grant sought to level home

SANDPOINT — Bonner County expects to learn next year if it will be awarded a federal grant to purchase and level a home that was built in the floodway of two migrating rivers.

County commissioners approved on Tuesday putting up a local match of 25 percent for a $677,000 grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to purchase the property.

“The home, the fill and foundation associated with that would be removed. We would reshape the property, re-seed and re-vegetate,” said Bonner County Planning Director Clare Marley.

The home is located at the confluence of the Pack River and Grouse Creek.

The now-defunct county building department approved construction of the 3,700-square-foot home in 1994, but FEMA later determined that there was no required analysis of the home’s impact on the base flood elevation.

The county clouded the title to the property last year, an action which hampers the sale of the property and lessens its value.

An undated real estate advertisement filed with the Planning Department indicated the home was being offered for sale for $849,021 at one point.

A couple purchased the home in 2008 and allegedly elevated and hard-surfaced a driveway without a permit. An accessory building was also erected without a permit.

The custom home’s presence in the floodway threatens flood insurance rates for more than 200 landowners in Bonner County.

The county is responsible for enforcing a floodplain management ordinance because it participates in the National Flood Insurance Program.

The county’s grant match would amount to approximately $167,000, with about $48,000 in in-kind contributions.

Marley said the county anticipates learning if the grant will be awarded in February 2014.

The 20-acre parcel will initially be held by the county if the grant comes through.

“At this point it has to be. There wasn’t any way through our Idaho laws to do anything other than have it be acquired by the county,” added Marley.

“Once the county acquires it, there are some FEMA regulations that allow us to convey that to a state agency or qualified conservation organization.”